To me at my fifth-floor window
TO me at my fifth-floor windowThe chimney-pots in rowsAre sets of pipes pandeanFor every wind that blows;
And the smoke that whirls and eddiesIn a thousand times and keysIs really a visible musicSet to my reveries.
O monstrous pipes, melodiousWith fitful tune and dream,The clouds are your only audience,Her thought is your only theme!
Words in this poem
- fitful a.
- Full of fits; irregularly variable; impulsive and unstable. [From 7th Fit.]
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
To me at my fifth-floor window is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #1568; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: W. E. Henley, To me at my fifth-floor window, in Poems (1898), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #1568, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/henley-poems/to-me-at-my-fifth-floor-window.html, id L12395.
Form and metre
To me at my fifth-floor window is 12 lines in 3 stanzas of 4 lines each. The metre is common measure, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 82%). 89% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.3 syllables. 7 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 58% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in common measure.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 1 -A-A window · rowsA · pandean · blowsA
- 2 AA-A eddiesA · keysA · music · reveriesA
- 3 -A-A melodious · dreamA · audience · themeA
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. Read against common measure. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| TO me at my fifth-floor window | 8 | ······/˘ |
| The chimney-pots in rows | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| Are sets of pipes pandean | 7 | ····˘/˘ |
| For every wind that blows; | 7 | ·/˘˘··· |
| And the smoke that whirls and eddies | 8 | ······/˘ |
| In a thousand times and keys | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Is really a visible music | 9 | ·/˘·/˘˘/˘ |
| Set to my reveries. | 6 | ···/˘˘ |
| O monstrous pipes, melodious | 8 | ·/˘·˘/˘˘ |
| With fitful tune and dream, | 6 | ·/˘··· |
| The clouds are your only audience, | 9 | ····/˘/˘˘ |
| Her thought is your only theme! | 7 | ····/˘· |
The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.